


City under stars

by Kanekane



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternative Universe - No Ghouls, Fluff, M/M, Self-cest, it's hard living in a big city
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 17:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanekane/pseuds/Kanekane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaneki, an university student, needs to move to a big city to start his studies. He just didn't expect everything to be so expensive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	City under stars

**Author's Note:**

> Silly fic I'm writing for a friend.
> 
> Thanks for my amazing beta: Makenzie Kubacak! (You can find they on Facebook with the same username or on Deviantart as Wind-Stone) Thank you, really! You made this 100% more enjoyable!

Kaneki sighed, making senseless marks on the paper that showed his finances. Or better yet, the lack of it. He was almost negative. The money he had now could only buy some ramen, and maybe a water bottle.

Yes, he knew it was going to be difficult living in a big city. He’d tried to plan everything, but as life always happens, he had some emergencies that needed more money than previously thought. 

And, like a magic trick (a very bad one), he was in the middle of a crises.

What was he supposed to do?

It was his third month away from home, where he was really trying his best; studying in one of the most renowned universities while having a part time job at the local coffee shop. It wasn’t easy. Especially to someone like Kaneki, who’d always had problems making friends or even voicing his own will. But he thought he had been doing a great job.

Until he’d checked his bank account.

Kaneki sighed again, dropping his head until it was softly resting on the desk.

It was the middle of the month. The rent was due in almost two weeks, and he needed to pay all the other bills. Thinking back, he didn’t know how he’d managed to survive in the past two months (maybe it was because of the extra money he had intended to keep for as long as possible).… Well, it was good while it lasted.

There were some options: he could try and ask for help at his job, but this would be just a temporary solution and he didn’t have the courage to say something like this to Yoshimura. Especially when he had only been working at the shop for a little amount of time. He could also try to find a second job; although it was virtually impossible due to his schedule…

Kaneki eyed the paper, his mind trying to come up with something that could help.

Maybe Hide? …No, he couldn’t accept money from him, even though they were best friends. His mother wasn’t even a possibility, since she was always lending money to his aunt.

He started to scribbled on the paper, thinking stupid things: if he hadn’t bought food last week maybe he could’ve saved enough to pay the water bill, maybe if he hadn’t-- 

With another sigh, Kaneki ran his fingers through his hair.

In reality, this train of thought had some truth. After all, he really could save money by spending less in some things. 

The black haired male spent the next few minutes writing everything that made him use money, coming to the conclusion that yes, the rent was his biggest problem.

The place where he lived wasn’t really big, having a kitchen, two rooms, one bathroom, a living room and a tiny place where he could wash his clothes. What turned this place expensive was its localization; it was near the campus and in downtown, where almost everything was overpriced. 

And really, Kaneki wasn’t expecting (nor prepared) to deal with those prices. Back in his hometown, he could bring home almost everything that he wanted, whereas in this new city, he couldn’t buy even half of the items he used to purchase.

He drew some circles around the numbers on the paper.

Perhaps, if he found a new place to stay, his economic situation could improve. A home in some neighborhood not too far away from the university, where the prices weren’t so high and the crime rate wasn’t alarming, would be perfect; although he knew it was asking for too much.

Kaneki got up, walking around the desk and going to his computer (an old machine, but hey, it still worked), knowing that he could search through some websites and, with luck, find a new place.

About two hours later, the black haired male had gathered a few options, although none of them looked that good… He didn’t have a choice, did he?

Kaneki decided to go with the cheapest place first, a house that was a little far away from where he studied, but could be his salvation. Then, as second on the list, he had found an apartment. Though, by the photos, it was a mess. As his third and last option, Kaneki would try a house that, in all honesty, was beautiful. The only problem was that he needed to share it with a roommate.

In all his years of experience concerning human contact, Kaneki knew he was horrible with those kinds of things… Living with a foreigner person would be more than challenging; it would be almost impossible, _disastrous_! 

As the minutes ticked by, he made a call to schedule his visit to the first house.

Maybe things would work out this time?

\---------------------------------------

No, they didn’t.

Three days later Kaneki was sitting on his chair, resting his head on the desk while trying to forget the terrible thing that was visiting both the house and the apartment. He knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but really, the buildings were so destroyed that he even saw some rats running by the floor. Even thinking about it made him shiver with disgust.

Kaneki opened his eyes, looking to the number of his third option.

Okay, he wasn’t feeling confident about it, but what could he do…? Just going to see the house wouldn’t hurt, yeah?

The student picked up his phone, slowly pressing the numbers, and then taking one more minute to think about his own decision before finally calling the person. Shiro was his name.

His heart was racing when someone answered. The voice that greeted him was low and a little husky, but this could be a trick played by his own nervous mind.

“Hello?”

“Ah, hi! I’m calling for the, uh, announcement about the house…” Kaneki said awkwardly, starting to blush for apparently no reason. Good thing he was very far away from the other man.

There was a brief pause before the black haired male heard what seemed like a puff of breath.

“Yeah, I’m looking for someone to be my roommate” He said in a neutral tone. “Would you be interested?” 

This time the silence came from Kaneki himself, who took some seconds to think; right, a simple visit couldn’t be so horrible… If things turned worse than expected, he could just return home and lament his bad luck for a while. 

“Yes, I’m-,” Kaneki stated, walking through the room just to distract himself.

“Great… Can you come over on Saturday? I’ll be here all day long”

“Okay, I’ll be there!” This conversation wasn’t that bad after all! He was about to hang up when the other male spoke again.

“Can I know your name?”

“It’s Kaneki, Kaneki Ken”

Another short pause.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Shiro”

“…Uh, yes, me too.” Again with the awkwardness (was he even supposed to reply with it?) “I, ah, I’ll see you on Saturday. Bye!” And the black haired male finally ended the call, taking a deep breath.

Yeah… This wasn’t that bad.


End file.
